The truth is, you can take almost any generic WordPress theme and design a good looking real estate blog with it. What you need to identify is, does this theme contain all of the features that I require in a functioning real estate website? Or do I have to download a series of plugins and customize it to make it work the way that I want it to?

So here’s where I would start… Take a look at a series of real estate websites from your competitors and elsewhere, then ask yourself:

• What do you like?
• What don’t you like?
• What do you wish worked better?

…from there, you can start to shop around for a suitable real estate theme that has everything you need it to do.

What Do You Want a Real Estate Website To Do?

• Add an IDX Quick Search: You can add the Diverse Solutions IDX Plugin to just about any WordPress theme. It works right out of the box and it inherits it’s layout design from your theme’s design. If you’re not ready to purchase an IDX solution however, there’s a few WordPress themes that have functionality built-in to add your own listings manually. It’s labor intensive, sure, but it works.
• Add a Featured Slider: Maybe you want to display a series of featured listings on your home-page. You know, to give those listings some primary real estate and showcase them first any time a new visitor comes to your website. Well, some WordPress themes have a “featured slider” built-in so that you can do that sort of thing.
• Add Your Contact Info the to Top Right of the Site: One of the things I always recommend in a real estate website is your contact information on the upper right-hand side of the website at all times. If people need to contact you regarding any real estate related questions, your phone number should be right there. Well, some things make it easy to do this by widgetizing the header-right section of the site where you can then add a simple text widget with your necessary contact info.
• Add Additional Footer Navigation Items: The footer of a website used to be a place where you house your site’s copyright information. Now, in modern web design it’s a section to get creative but also, add additional expanded navigation items. Additional links, resources and other information that you can’t otherwise fit into your site’s header navigation. Some themes have footer widget sections built-in to make it easy for you to add content, other themes don’t.
• And ________________________. (What else?)

What other features do you look for in a real estate website? 

Here’s a short-list of five functioning WordPress themes for real estate. With your help, maybe we can add more recommendations to this list and update this post?!

AgentPress by StudioPress

A lot of careful thought and consideration went into building out this WordPress theme for real estate. You have a featured slider, IDX integration, a carousel to add links to your neighborhood category pages, and even a “Featured Listings” section to add your own listings side-by-side.

It might take some time to set up your site just as the demo appears, but everything just about works right out-of-the-box. And they have a great community support forum to help you out along the way.

You can purchase the AgentPress WordPress theme for real estate here.

Live examples of AgentPress in action:

• http://superiorrealtypartners.com – customized by Agent Evolution.
• http://www.atlantarealestateexperts.com – customized by Terence Richardson.
• http://www.nestinginnashville.com – search form customized by Loren Nason.
• http://reatx.com – customized by Loren Nason.

Generate Theme by StudioPress

While this theme isn’t real estate specific, I did find one real estate agent who’s using it for his real estate website. What I like about it, is that it emphasizes the email sign-up. Which as you know, means better lead generation.

So you might write an ebook titled something like:

• The Ultimate Guide for First-Time Home Buyers: Purchasing Irvine Real Estate. 
• The Ultimate Home Sellers Guide: How To Sell Your Home for Top Dollar In Today’s Market. 

Then, what if you placed an image of your ebook with that headline and Call To Action to subscribe. Think anyone would be interested? (You bet they would!) 

Here’s a live example of Generate Theme in action:

• http://www.raleighrealestatetalk.com

You can purchase the Generate Theme for WordPress here.

Realty de’ Classique

This one has elegant/luxury real estate written all over it. It contains just about all of the same/similar features as the AgentPress theme listed above and again, it has IDX integration so IDX data is properly styled and ready to work right out-of-the-box.

You can purchase the Realty’ de’Classique WordPress Theme for real estate here.

Estate Theme by WooThemes

This one is a bit more expensive than the others referenced above, but what I love about this theme is that it really puts emphasis on the “home search” by creating a search menu that spans across the top of the site from left to right. It’s properly styled and the listing display really puts emphasis on the property photos and details (they’re displayed in a very large format).

You can purchase the Estate WordPress Theme for real estate here.

TurnKey by MOJO Marketplace

This clean and simple theme keeps the focus on showcasing listings.  It uses the Bootstrap framework, which means a site that looks great on desktop, tablet and mobile with less code.  With lots of color options, a custom page builder for creating unique property pages and added shortcode features, it’s a bargain at $49.

The TurnKey real estate theme for WordPress is available for purchase here.

What’s Your Favorite WordPress Theme for Real Estate?

Do you have a specific WordPress Theme for Real Estate that you like? Drop a link to it in the comments for me and I’ll update this post…